A bit of a (inter)change ...

[one billion daleks]

We're always seeing lots of complicated rail networks, but for some reason we don't see many road layouts ... *mutter mutter*

So for a bit of a change, and for the benefit of any city-builders amongst us, here are a couple of motorway junctions to ponder ...

Has anyone else by any chance come up with their own 'Spaghetti Junctions' ...?

PS: I know, there's a small mistake in the first one!

[one billion daleks]

This corrects the error in the first one ... I think.

There may still be a way of simplifying it, possibly by eliminating the right-hand bridge, but it's 1:30am and my braincell seems to be fried from all the concentration.

[rbenevid]

Wacky junctions! It makes me want to start using RVs and one-way roads....

[Elukka]

I think you only need the green arrow on the first road piece.
I've done some in a scenario i'm doing, but they are nothing too special. Gameplay-wise, a simple intersection would probably work best but those look boring.

[Zuu]

Looks nice. I like the non-symmetrical aspects of the first junction.

In the corrected version of that junction you don't need to go up/down with the road in the middle of the junction. Since you got two bridges they can both cover the hill.

[LordAzamath]

Nice This suits for eye-candy pretty well

[one billion daleks]

Yes, there's quite a few minor enhancements that can be made to improve these intersections ... I've now removed one of the bridges on the first one, and 'tightened' it up a bit too. And on the second one, I've removed those 'lead-in' slopes to the south-north tunnels, and made the east-west lanes different heights .

But yes, for the purposes of the game all this complexity can be replaced by an elementary X junction! But as you suggest Elukka - they just look way too easy and boring haha! It's quite interesting to watch a bus or truck navigate its way through a maze ... the challenge is to ensure it doesn't cheat, and go the wrong way over a bridge!

Nowadays, I switch off the AI's ability to create roads, then use the ingame cheat to switch players and create lots of different coloured vehicles, with a wide variety of speeds. And when the map fills up with all this traffic, it's very satisfying to see hundreds of vehicles whizzing around your intersections!

You don't strictly need green arrows on every one-way tile ... but I include them to stop city-roads generated by the game from connecting to the motorway, which would cause traffic to bypass your intersections completely ... very bad! Another handy thing with motorways, is they act as barriers to city-growth ... stopping cities from merging into each other.

Anyway, thanks very much for the feedback guys!

[one billion daleks]

Oh, no screenies yet ... I seem to be the only one here doing stuff with roads!

Oh well, here's some more Motorway Madness!
... an attempt at a Spaghetti Junction.

The idea (er yes, there is one!) is to ensure that out-of-town North-East traffic can flow through the city centre at top speed, unimpeded.

And intown traffic can still get around without interfering with the motorway.

Well, that's the theory anyway haha ...

PS: At the moment, intown traffic can't join the motorway East ... I'll have to fix that!
EDIT: OK, fixed ... more spaghetti!

[CMircea]

This (the last) one is the best IMO. So beautiful...makes me want to use RVs, as well. But trains still own 'em for lnoger distances.

[one billion daleks]

Thanks for those very kind remarks Desolator!

Actually, I think I may have achieved Spaghetti Nirvana ... at last!

... or maybe this interchange is just starting to look a bit like one of those impossible drawings by that guy Escher!

Cos there's three levels now ... the tunnels at the bottom, the bridges at the top, and the roads above the tunnels and under the bridges ...

Phew!!!

Hmm, I wonder if I'm ready yet to try five levels

[White Rabbit]

You know, that particular bridge set supports the UK road set.

[CMircea]

Yeah, set the first parameter to 1 or 2, can't remember exactly. Try 1, 2 & 3 and see which is for UK RS.

Anyway, that's a rally cool road junction. I bet I can run a ton of RVs in it without jams, and it'll look so cool!

[Sir A. Boey]

one billion daleks you rock the one-way road junctions
I to did the one-way road junctions but I
think yours are more beautiful than mine
don't want to spam but you can see mine here
look at post 13 I've posted 3 of my junctions...

Looking forward to see that 5 level junction

[one billion daleks]

I had a look at your intersections Sir A. Boey ... well, I must say I'm very relieved to discover there is at least two of us here experimenting with one-way roads!

Your intersections are quite spread out though aren't they, which tends to unscramble that essential essence of spaghetti-ness that all dedicated roading engineers are looking for

So if I may suggest - maybe try bringing the roads closer together, and also make the landscape a bit more lumpy - to create plenty of springboards for bridges, and burrows for tunnels - then I think you'll be well on course to hitting the 'sweet spot' when it comes to creating serious traffic chaos!

And yes, I am now attempting the ultimate five-level 'Mother of All Junctions' ... it's proving a bit tricky though as bridges can't cross over each other, darn it! I am also experimenting a bit on the side - with canals - to see if I can create a OTTD version of Venice!

Anyway, I will be sticking all this stuff in the scenario I'm creating, and then I will upload it - and if people feel like it, they can have a break from trains and start playing about with RVs again!

::::::

Hey, thanks for that handy tip about the bridges White Rabbit and Desolator ... I'm using newbridgesw.grf v0.41 by Purno, and that doesn't seem to support the UK Roadset as such. What I get with the parameters are ...

1 = solid yellow line (US Roadset?)
2 = TTRS roads (?)
3 = broken yellow line

However, the TTRS roads are in fact a closer match than what I've used here - the dotted lines now look the same, but the tarmac is a lighter grey than in the UK Roadset. Still, that's quite an improvement, so thanks for that!

[one billion daleks]

OK, last one ... I promise
Hopefully, someone else will post some

Another fine mess I gotten myself into ... this one was a bit tricky because space was rather tight ... it just so happened that the motorways converged right next to a waterway.

[rbenevid]

One billion daleks, please post one of the already posted, with lots of RVs in it.


Your intersections rock!

[one billion daleks]

Thanks rbenevid, great to hear you like the intersections!

I'll have a go at setting up some action on the three-layered one for you tomorrow, but in the meantime here's a couple of screenies to be going on with ...

These are from my early efforts, so they're quite straightforward junctions really, and the traffic density is still quite low, but hopefully they'll give you an idea of how things will look when they're scaled up to higher traffic volumes

As I mentioned further up the thread, I switch off the AI and then use the ingame cheats to switch from one company to another. Then I work things like this ...

Red Roads = buses
Yellowman Mail = mailtrucks
Blue Line Freight = freight trucks

... and then I create different vehicles to get plenty of differing speeds on the motorways, so some vehicles are overtaking others ...

The first screenie is the main Bus Terminal in Capital City, right at the end of the motorway. The double-deckers feed passengers to the hi-speed coaches, and the coaches then whizz off round the motorway system.

The second one is a simple intersection with a couple of intercity transit stations for the buses. I found I had to use transit stations as waypoints to force the buses to stay on the motorways, otherwise they'd tend to head off down some backroute intended for servicing a farm ... darned cheeky busdrivers seem to think they know better than me how things are meant to work, sheesh!

[RandomAlien]

How do you make motorways in OTTD?

[Sir A. Boey]

I had a look at your intersections Sir A. Boey ... well, I must say I'm very relieved to discover there is at least two of us here experimenting with one-way roads!
Your intersections are quite spread out though aren't they, which tends to unscramble that essential essence of spaghetti-ness that all dedicated roading engineers are looking for
So if I may suggest - maybe try bringing the roads closer together, and also make the landscape a bit more lumpy - to create plenty of springboards for bridges, and burrows for tunnels - then I think you'll be well on course to hitting the 'sweet spot' when it comes to creating serious traffic chaos!

thanks for your pointers I will try and make the roads closer to each other and If you let me I'll post them here...

Keep up the junction design

[one billion daleks]

Yes that's fine, feel free to post here!

It would be really neat to see some junctions by other players - I reckon the ones you've already created Sir A. Boey would pose a nice juicy challenge, especially if you try integrating them into a really tight configuration!

RandomAlien ... here is a screenie to give you some pointers on motorway creation. It's best to build them on land with say, 7 layers of depth (above sea-level, in other words) - that way you'll have plenty of room to dig down and create mutiple layers, and then you can build heaps of link roads. The more layers there are the more complex the intersection becomes ... that's what makes it really interesting and challenging!

I've found that the main indicators of a successful interchange is:

1. You should never see a vehicle going the wrong way across a bridge.
2. Every entry point should be able to make it's way to every exit, including ...
3. ... being able to turn round and head back the way it came from.

If you look at my image A015, you'll see I broke Rule 3 in that junction - but hey, that would be very easily fixed anyway!